GTA plans to build new facility near Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE — An $806,000 land deal for a new Grant Transit Authority (GTA) facility recently closed and work is underway to find funding to pay for the estimated $5 million to $6 million building.

GTA wants to build a new maintenance and operations facility north of Westover Boulevard and Owens Road near Moses Lake, said GTA Transit Manager Greg Wright.

There are plans to have the building situated on five of the 10 purchased acres, which were paid for with $479,000 of federal funding and GTA’s capital reserves, he explained.

There’s room for growth and future expansion if needed, Wright noted.

The current maintenance and operations building is located on Broadway Avenue in Moses Lake, about 20 miles from GTA’s administrative office in Ephrata.

“We’re looking at efficiencies of course, of being under one roof,” Wright said. “It’s easier to monitor and maintain operations.”

GTA would like to keep its Ephrata office open, he said.

It’s not clear when construction will start on the new building, as it depends when GTA can obtain funding, he said.

An earmark request from last year was not fulfilled, but a federal earmark through the Federal Transit Administration will probably be heard in February, he said.

The GTA board looked at a number of sites and decided the best fit for the new building would be to follow the blueprints from a Logan, Utah, facility, he said.

Moses Lake realtors Rod Sauvage and Les Parr worked on the land transaction for the past year and a half as a feasibility study had to be completed, Sauvage said.

He noted it was an exciting project because of what GTA’s going to be doing.

“It’s really going to be a nice facility,” he said. “That was the exciting part about the deal.”